Smart devices not a smart choice for now

Updated 6:54 pm, Sunday, November 8, 2015

David Einstein says devices like a Nest digital thermostat might work well as replacements, but don’t rush to buy them.

David Einstein says devices like a Nest digital thermostat might...

Why does Stephen Curry wrap the ball around his waist while he’s driving toward the basket before feeding a perfect bounce pass to a teammate for a slam dunk? As one sports writer put it, “Because he can.”

That also explains why rich, giant companies like Apple and Google are vying to hasten the evolution of the “connected home.” Because they can. As Winston Zeddemore said in “Ghostbusters,” “We have the tools, we have the talent!” But creating a market out of thin air is harder than creating a highlight-reel basketball play.

More by David Einstein

In a connected home, smart devices work individually and sometimes together to make life easier. Approach your front door and the lock senses your arrival. Touch it, and it lets you in (you could still use your key if you like). Enter a room and a smart thermostat heats it to your liking (simultaneously cooking the whole house). When a smart camera senses motion while you’re out, it turns on the lights (that’ll foil those burglars). And when a smart smoke detector detects smoke, it can tell another device to turn on your lawn sprinklers (I kid you not).

The prime example of this new wave of connected devices is Google’s Nest Learning Thermostat, which serves as the centerpiece of the Nest connected home system. As the name implies, it learns how to set itself from the way you use it. Turn up the heat for a few days in the morning, and the Nest will learn to do it for you. That’s great, but how is that measurably better than the programmable thermostats that have been around for years?

Both Google’s Nest system and Apple’s HomeKit system use smartphones to manage connected devices. But the iPhone-Android rivalry has fragmented the market in its infancy. There are devices designed to work with Nest, and devices designed for HomeKit. Some devices work with both, but many don’t.

Another problem: Big companies have been slow to wade into the fray, leaving the field of emerging connected devices mostly to smaller companies and startups.

Here’s the bottom line: If you need a new thermostat, fine (the Nest apparently is selling well). But the connected home we can all live with is still years away.

Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi speaks about the HomeKit app in S.F.

A: A couple of possibilities come to mind: BasicTalk, a “light” version of Vonage that costs $10 per month for U.S. calling, and Ooma, which offers free U.S. calling once you purchase the $130 Ooma Telo box. Both are Internet-phone services like Vonage and come with voice mail, caller ID and 911 capability. The biggest difference is that BasicTalk lets you keep your current phone number for free, while Ooma charges $40 for the privilege.

But hold the phone a minute. You may be able to stick with Vonage and get a better deal than you have now. If you don’t make international calls, consider getting rid of the “world” option. But don’t do it online, because on Vonage.com you’ll be charged $10 to activate a less-expensive plan.

Instead, call customer support and tell them you want to pay a lot less for phone service. They’ll then probably offer you a “customer loyalty promotion” plan priced at less than $20 for 12 months, and they’ll also waive the activation fee.

Q: My Android phone often gets really slow, especially when opening Web pages. Would changing to a different browser help (I currently use Chrome)? Is there anything else I can do to speed things up?

A: You’re not alone, my friend. Even phones with 2 or more gigabytes of RAM can suffer slowdowns. That’s because part of every app you use goes into the memory, and it stays there even after you switch to another app. In addition, a lot of apps start automatically every time you turn on the phone.

Smartphones are designed to limit the amount of memory that can be hogged by apps, but when you get near the limit, some apps can get sluggish, especially browsers. You could try another browser — some claim to be faster than the rest — but a better solution is to install a program like Clean Master or All-in-One Toolbox. These free apps offer one-touch features that boost memory by killing apps that are running in the background but aren’t essential to the phone’s system.

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